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INDEX
NEWS AROUND INDIAN COUNTRY 2
NEWS BRIEFS 3
COMMENTARY/EDITORIALS 4
CLASSIFIEDS 7
Hayward student
receives U of
Minnesota DOVE
Fellowship
page 3
LLRBC Secretary/
Treasurer LaRose
queries BIA about
Secretarial Election
page 4
MCT Secretarial
Election eliminate our
children's future for
leadership
page 4
LLBO Council, Bug O
Nay Ge Shig School
Board Members, Staff
and Parents
page 4
GAO Health Report
- a wasted effort
page 4
Alvin John Wind pre-trial hearing set for Monday
By Bill Lawrence
Reports that the Alvin John
Wind case has been dropped are
false. Earl Maus, Cass County Attorney, confirmed the charges are
still pending. A pre-trial hearing is
scheduled for Monday, October 24,
in the third floor courtroom at the
Cass County Court House. Wind's
case will come up in the afternoon
session that starts at 1 p.m., Judge
John Smith presiding. The court
session is open to the pubhc.
In April, Wind, Leech Lake Assistant Police Chief, was charged
in a complaint signed by the Cass
Lake Prosecuting Attorney, Earl
Maus, with two counts of criminal
sexual conduct. The first charges
that Alvin John Wind "did engage
in sexual contact with another person and... uses force or coercion
to accomplish the sexual contact.
Complaints charge "The Defendant" [Alvin John Wind] grabbed
[the victim] and attempted to kiss
her. She tried to escape but was
pushed against the wall. According to the signed statement
"Defendant had locked the
door...[and] had forcefully taken
her hands and placed them inside
his pants..."
The first count, upon conviction, carries a maximum penalty
of 10 years in prison and up to a
$20,000 fine, or both.
In a memo issued by the Leech
Lake Executive Director in April,
Leech Lake Chief Steve Day was
advised "Assistant Chief John
Wind is and has been on administrative leave for some time. This
means that Mr. Wind is not to act
in any official capacity for the
Leech Lake Tribal Police Department." The memo further states,
"Mr. Wind is not to be present in
the offices of the LLTPD for any
reason while he is on administrative leave."
Sources report that John Wind
remains on duty at the Leech Lake
Police Department.
Man dies after
fight with
Duluth police
By Randy Furst
Reprinted from Star Tribune
10/20/05
A 29-year old man who was
on life support following an altercation with police in Duluth
has dies.
David Croud, a member of
the White Earth Band of Chippewa, died Tuesday afternoon
at St. Mary's Medical Center
in Duluth, said Beth Johnson,
a hospital spokeswoman. She
said his family asked that the
hospital not release additional
information. Witnesses
say that police twice slammed
Croud's face against a stonewall
during an arrest outside the
Fond du Lac Casino in downtown Duluth, where police said
he had been harassing customers. He was apparently drunk.
The Minnesota Bureau of
Criminal Apprehension is investigating.
Police say that after they
arrived, Croud became "belligerent" as they attempted to
handcuff him.
But two witnesses say Croud
was passive, and that the two
police officers confronting here
were the aggressive ones.
Some crimes, arrests increase
among Native Americans
Indianz.com
The number of violent crimes
and property crimes declined in
2004, the FBI reported on Monday, but certain incidents involving American Indians and Alaska
Natives increased.
Nationwide, violent crime -
- including murder, robbery and
aggravated assault — fell by 1.2
percent last year. Meanwhile,
property crimes decreased by
1.1 percent, according to statistics collected from over 17,000
tribal, local, state and federal law
enforcement agencies as part of
the Uniform Crime Reporting
program.
"In a nation where information
sharing has become a priority so
that law enforcement can work
together to investigate crimes
and prevent terrorist acts, the
UCR program remains an open
book for all who want to better
understand crime in the United
States," said Robert Mueller, the
director of the FBI.
Despite the drop in overall
crime, there were some increases.
The number of rapes grew slightly,
by 0.8 percent, the FBI reported.
And crime in Indian Country
continues to be a problem. For
the past five years, government
reports have shown that American
Indian and Alaska Native men and
women of all ages are victimized
at the highest rates in the nation.
The UCR data released yesterday showed that the number
of hate crimes against Native
Americans increased. In 2004,
a total of 100 Native Americans
were victimized in bias crimes, up
from 85 in 2003.
At the same time, fewer Native
Americans were involved in hate
crimes, the data showed. In 2004,
only 48 Native Americans committed bias crimes, down from 61
in 2003.
Murder statistics involving
Native Americans were harder
to come by. Due to the way the
data was presented in both the
2004 and 2003 reports, American
Indians and Alaska Natives were
lumped with Asians and Pacific
Islanders so it's not possible to
determine whether Native Americans were victims of homicide at
a higher rate.
But other data showed that more
and more American Indians and
Alaska Natives are being arrested
for committing violent crimes.
Native Americans made up 1.3
percent of all arrested in 2004
despite being less than 1 percent
of the total population.
In 2004, a total of 131,539 Na-
CRIME to page 3
BIA sets MCT secretarial election for November 22
In response to a request by
the Minnesota Chippewa Tribe
Tribal Executive Committee, the
Superintendent of the Bureau of
Indian Affairs-Minnesota Agency
has convened a General Election
Board and has called for a Secretarial Election to amend the
Revised Constitution and Bylaws
of the MN Chippewa Tribe. The
date ofthe Secretarial Election has
been set for Tuesday, November
22,2005.
Ehgible voters, those enrolled
MN Chippewa Tribe members of
the White Earth, Leech Lake, Bois
Forte, Mille Lacs, Fond du Lac,
and Grand Portage reservations
who will be 18 on or before the
date of the election will be asked
to vote on two proposed amendments. The first would amend
Section 2 to require candidates
running for office to reside on the
reservation of their enrollment
one year before the election. The
second would amend Article IV
by adding a Section 4, which
would prohibit convicted felons
from running for office. The
precise wording of the proposed
amendments as well as detailed
information on how to vote will
be mailed to each eligible voter at
the most current address of record
on file at the offices of the MN
Chippewa Tribe.
Traditional reservation and urban
polhng sites will be utihzed and
will be open from 8:00 a.m. until
7:00 p.m. on the date of the election. Members may also vote by
absentee ballot. In order to ensure
effective mailings.
Tribal members are asked to
update their current address with
the Tribal Operations—Enrollments Office at (218) 335-8581.
Leaders ofthe MCT and Agency
Superintendent want to emphasize
that the Secretarial Election process differs from general tribal
elections and follows its own
procedures. If you hve any questions, please contact the General
Election Board at (218) 335-8581
or write to them at General Election Board, P.O. Box 517, Cass
Lake, MN 56633.
UND president says he forgot to mention nickname issue
By Dave Kolpack
Associated Press
GRAND FORKS, N.D. - University of North Dakota president
Charles Kupchella is proposing
new research centers and a new
research foundation, saying they
would contribute millions of dollars to the state's economy.
"We are well within the top
100 doctoral research universities in the United States, by every
measure," Kupchella said Tuesday
in his "state of the university"
speech.
Kupchella told about 200 people
that UND is making progress in
improving programs and increasing faculty salaries. He failed to
mention the school's dispute with
the NCAA over the Fighting Sioux
nickname, even though it took up
about half a page in his written
13-page speech.
Asked about it afterward, Kupchella said he was not trying to
avoid the nickname issue.
"Would you believe I just forgot
about it?" he said.
"I was extremely surprised that
it didn't come up," said Charles
Moore, a fourth-year communications student from Bismarck.
"The two biggest issues with
students right now are probably
tuition and the nickname controversy."
Kupchella's speech proposed up
to five new research centers, at a
cost of about $10 million, and a
new research foundation.
"We all have to be involved in
research development," Kupchella
said. "We're deep into that."
However, he said the school
would not sacrifice student programs for research and facilities.
The school also has plans to
add programs in the evenings,
weekends and summer months,
and to develop American Indians
programs, he said.
Kupchella told students in the
audience that tuition increases
may not be as large as the last
couple of years.
"If we don't have to raise it,
we won't, but if we have to, we
will," Kupchella said, responding
to a question from Moore.
"I think everyone is worried
about keeping tuition increases to
a minimum," said Bobby Haskins,
the UND student body president.
"I thought he did a good job of explaining that and other important
issues."
Haskins said vxit wouldn't
have been appropriate" to turn
the address into a debate on the
UND to page 3
Grand Forks City Council encourages more casino talk
Associated Press
GRAND FORKS, N.D. - City
Council members have passed a
resolution encouraging the Turtle
Mountain Band of Chippewa to
continue efforts to get a casino
built here.
Monday's 5-2 vote came despite
pleas from opponents who said the
casino would be morally wrong.
The resolution says the council
encourages the tribe to continue
trying to get state and federal approval for the casino. It says the
council will later determine if
there are economic benefits.
"I don't know if we need a lot
more information," Council member Eliot Glassheim said. "It is not
a direction the city of Grand Forks
needs to go."
He and council member Dorette
Kerian opposed the resolution.
Bill Johnson, the tribe's casino
consultant, said the resolution will
help move the project along.
"It shows there's interest," he
said. "It allows the federal people
to believe this is a real project, not
a 'reservation shopping' deal."
The resolution indicated council members still have questions
about how much land would become sovereign tribal territory and
how much the tribe would pay the
city, since sovereign territory may
not be taxed.
"I think this is a bad idea
whether we're offered $100,000
or $500,000 as a city," Glassheim
said. "This is money masquerading as economic development."
Marianne Allen, a teacher opposing the casino, said she was
there to speak for the children.
"It's not your job to make
money," she told council members. "It's your job to protect
children."
Council President Hal Gersh-
man said some believe crime
goes up at casinos only because
they bring many people together,
and that they provide more jobs to
reduce poverty rates.
Council member Doug Chris-
tensen, who drafted the resolution,
said he would support the idea of
putting the casino issue to a community vote. Monday night's vote,
he said, is just showing the tribe
"the courtesy of listening."
VOICE OF THE PEOPLE
web page: www.press-on.net
Native /mm*s<
American
Press
We Support Equal Opportunity For All People
A weekly publication. Copyright, Native American Press, 2005
Founded in 1988
Volume 18 Issue 18
October 21, 2005
NIEA President Dr. David Beaulieu (L) hands Dr. Will Antell (R) the Lifetime Achievement Award
following remarks that characterized Antell as an "early visionary." Both are White Earth Chippewa Indians. Photo: Rick St. Germaine
Will Antell Receives Life Achievement Award in
Indian Education: NIEA Recognizes its Founder
By Rick St. Germaine
Denver, CO - Standing
in the glow of bright lights
cast down from the immense
convention assembly hall, Dr.
Will Antell, Minnesota White
Earth Chippewa, was handed
the Life Achievement Award
from the National Indian
Education Association at its
36th convention in Denver,
Colorado.
Showered with accolades
that spanned forty plus years
of educational leadership at
a crucial time that pre-dated
the policy formation period of
Indian self-determination and
Indian control of schools, Antell thanked the organization
and recognized many others
who as a team launched NIEA
and federal legislation to support Indian education.
"There was Bill Demmert,
Rosemary (Christensen),
Dillon Platero, Ace Sahmaut,
John Winchester, and many
others who should also be
recognized," he stated, as
he firmly held onto the shiny
crystal award.
"The original seventeen
board members (of NIEA) became a voice in every level of
government and service - in
education, tribal, university,
state, and federal," said Antell.
"I would like to acknowledge
my wife, Mary Lou, who was
the first secretary of NIEA back
in 1969, in the basement of our
home in Stillwater, Minnesota,"
he added, as she stood up and
nodded to the applause.
"She made the phone calls,
prepared the agendas, readied the
mailings, made travel arrangements, and sent out the notices,"
he explained, as he looked back
at the humble beginnings of the
movement.
Antell, introduced by his
friend and current NIEA president. Dr. David Beaulieu, was
a teacher, coach, administrator,
university professor, Minnesota
state associate superintendent of
education, and one of the fram-
ers of the Indian Education Act
of 1972.
In the late 1960s, Antell and
the other founders asked for
time on the conference agendas
of the major American Indian
AWARD to page 3
Thousands of Native Children Being
Left Behind: NIEA Convention Opens
By Rick St. Germaine
Denver, CO - Responding to a
growing dissatisfaction from Indian educators who are complaining about damaging impediments
from the No Child Left Behind
legislation, the National Indian
Education Association on October
6th launched a critical broadside at
the federal education program with
charges that it is actually causing
more American Indian students
to give up and drop out than it is
helping.
"This is not a small and trivial
matter," declared Dr. David Beau
lieu, NIEA president, in his
opening charge to the 2,000 delegates assembled at the Denver
Convention Center, "NCLB is
so focused on punishing school
failure rather than rewarding the
many successes that our schools
have achieved."
In a rousing speech, interrupted at times with applause,
Beaulieu cited the components
of the federal program that are
causing the most problems.
"The Indian voice is heard
NIEA to page 3
Program aims at keeping American Indian
language alive
Associated Press
MINNEAPOLIS -Asachild,
Emma Fairbanks was sent to an
Indian boarding school, where
she was hit with a ruler if she
spoke Ojibwe.
But seven decades later, her
daughter, Cleone Thompson,
runs a child care center where
young children are enrolled in
an American-Indian language
immersion program.
"I never thought it would
come back," Fairbanks, 79,
said. "I was worried they (future generations) would forget
their Indian ways."
Thompson said that in about
10 years, most of the elders on
the reservations will be gone
and there won't be anyone left
who speaks the language. Her
child care center in her Minneapolis home, Nokomis Child
Care, is part of the first Indian
language immersion program
in the nation for urban preschoolers to revitalize native
languages.
About 55,000 American Indians are enrolled in tribes in
Minnesota. Roughly 3,000 are
fully fluent Ojibwe speakers
and about 30 are fully fluent in
Dakota, according to estimates by
the Grotto Foundation, which has
focused much of its philanthropy
on language revitalization.
Many American Indians can
say certain words and phrases,
but few can carry on a conversation, community leaders say.
It is part of the legacy of the
boarding schools that American
Indians were forced to go to for
decades.
"My parents didn't want me to
speak Dakota; they were afraid
for us," said Jennifer Bendickson,
program director at the Alliance
of Early Childhood Professionals,
which was awarded the federal
grant to launch the preschools
this month. "They would talk to
each other in Dakota, but when
we came in, they'd stop."
Universities and tribal schools
have offered language and culture
classes over the years. But now,
people are finding new ways
to keep native languages alive.
There is an Ojibwe immersion
preschool in Leech Lake, and Indigenous Language Symposiums
are held annually. In the Upper
Sioux community, a specialized
class teaches Dakota to entire
households, rather than individu
als. At University of Minnesota,
language students drive up to
Canada on weekends in the fall
for an immersion experience at
wild rice harvests.
Research shows that immersion programs _ from preschool
to high school _ have the best results, said Margaret Boyer, executive director of the Alliance for
Early Childhood Professionals.
"If you want to learn Spanish,
you can go to South America,"
Boyer said. "If you want to learn
French, you go to France. But
there's nowhere in the U.S. you
can go and hear only Ojibwe or
Dakota. So the best way to learn
is immersion _ and starting at a
young age."
At All Nations Child Care Center, the students practice counting
numbers and saying animal names
and colors in Dakota. They also
are surrounded with drawings of
symbols in American Indian culture, such as eagles and wolves.
Similar immersion programs
will be launched at Four Directions Child Development Center,
Cherish the Children Learning
Center and Nokomis Child Care.
PROGRAM to page 5

'■■""■'■'■ : ■ _ . -
■'.-'' --■".■ -'■■ . V : ■ :■■-■-: ■ . v.- .-.-:■■
'•"" --■'■""' \v;:v~'V;^^v^;
''■'• _ i"
■'"':-""' ! '■-"".
■
INDEX
NEWS AROUND INDIAN COUNTRY 2
NEWS BRIEFS 3
COMMENTARY/EDITORIALS 4
CLASSIFIEDS 7
Hayward student
receives U of
Minnesota DOVE
Fellowship
page 3
LLRBC Secretary/
Treasurer LaRose
queries BIA about
Secretarial Election
page 4
MCT Secretarial
Election eliminate our
children's future for
leadership
page 4
LLBO Council, Bug O
Nay Ge Shig School
Board Members, Staff
and Parents
page 4
GAO Health Report
- a wasted effort
page 4
Alvin John Wind pre-trial hearing set for Monday
By Bill Lawrence
Reports that the Alvin John
Wind case has been dropped are
false. Earl Maus, Cass County Attorney, confirmed the charges are
still pending. A pre-trial hearing is
scheduled for Monday, October 24,
in the third floor courtroom at the
Cass County Court House. Wind's
case will come up in the afternoon
session that starts at 1 p.m., Judge
John Smith presiding. The court
session is open to the pubhc.
In April, Wind, Leech Lake Assistant Police Chief, was charged
in a complaint signed by the Cass
Lake Prosecuting Attorney, Earl
Maus, with two counts of criminal
sexual conduct. The first charges
that Alvin John Wind "did engage
in sexual contact with another person and... uses force or coercion
to accomplish the sexual contact.
Complaints charge "The Defendant" [Alvin John Wind] grabbed
[the victim] and attempted to kiss
her. She tried to escape but was
pushed against the wall. According to the signed statement
"Defendant had locked the
door...[and] had forcefully taken
her hands and placed them inside
his pants..."
The first count, upon conviction, carries a maximum penalty
of 10 years in prison and up to a
$20,000 fine, or both.
In a memo issued by the Leech
Lake Executive Director in April,
Leech Lake Chief Steve Day was
advised "Assistant Chief John
Wind is and has been on administrative leave for some time. This
means that Mr. Wind is not to act
in any official capacity for the
Leech Lake Tribal Police Department." The memo further states,
"Mr. Wind is not to be present in
the offices of the LLTPD for any
reason while he is on administrative leave."
Sources report that John Wind
remains on duty at the Leech Lake
Police Department.
Man dies after
fight with
Duluth police
By Randy Furst
Reprinted from Star Tribune
10/20/05
A 29-year old man who was
on life support following an altercation with police in Duluth
has dies.
David Croud, a member of
the White Earth Band of Chippewa, died Tuesday afternoon
at St. Mary's Medical Center
in Duluth, said Beth Johnson,
a hospital spokeswoman. She
said his family asked that the
hospital not release additional
information. Witnesses
say that police twice slammed
Croud's face against a stonewall
during an arrest outside the
Fond du Lac Casino in downtown Duluth, where police said
he had been harassing customers. He was apparently drunk.
The Minnesota Bureau of
Criminal Apprehension is investigating.
Police say that after they
arrived, Croud became "belligerent" as they attempted to
handcuff him.
But two witnesses say Croud
was passive, and that the two
police officers confronting here
were the aggressive ones.
Some crimes, arrests increase
among Native Americans
Indianz.com
The number of violent crimes
and property crimes declined in
2004, the FBI reported on Monday, but certain incidents involving American Indians and Alaska
Natives increased.
Nationwide, violent crime -
- including murder, robbery and
aggravated assault — fell by 1.2
percent last year. Meanwhile,
property crimes decreased by
1.1 percent, according to statistics collected from over 17,000
tribal, local, state and federal law
enforcement agencies as part of
the Uniform Crime Reporting
program.
"In a nation where information
sharing has become a priority so
that law enforcement can work
together to investigate crimes
and prevent terrorist acts, the
UCR program remains an open
book for all who want to better
understand crime in the United
States," said Robert Mueller, the
director of the FBI.
Despite the drop in overall
crime, there were some increases.
The number of rapes grew slightly,
by 0.8 percent, the FBI reported.
And crime in Indian Country
continues to be a problem. For
the past five years, government
reports have shown that American
Indian and Alaska Native men and
women of all ages are victimized
at the highest rates in the nation.
The UCR data released yesterday showed that the number
of hate crimes against Native
Americans increased. In 2004,
a total of 100 Native Americans
were victimized in bias crimes, up
from 85 in 2003.
At the same time, fewer Native
Americans were involved in hate
crimes, the data showed. In 2004,
only 48 Native Americans committed bias crimes, down from 61
in 2003.
Murder statistics involving
Native Americans were harder
to come by. Due to the way the
data was presented in both the
2004 and 2003 reports, American
Indians and Alaska Natives were
lumped with Asians and Pacific
Islanders so it's not possible to
determine whether Native Americans were victims of homicide at
a higher rate.
But other data showed that more
and more American Indians and
Alaska Natives are being arrested
for committing violent crimes.
Native Americans made up 1.3
percent of all arrested in 2004
despite being less than 1 percent
of the total population.
In 2004, a total of 131,539 Na-
CRIME to page 3
BIA sets MCT secretarial election for November 22
In response to a request by
the Minnesota Chippewa Tribe
Tribal Executive Committee, the
Superintendent of the Bureau of
Indian Affairs-Minnesota Agency
has convened a General Election
Board and has called for a Secretarial Election to amend the
Revised Constitution and Bylaws
of the MN Chippewa Tribe. The
date ofthe Secretarial Election has
been set for Tuesday, November
22,2005.
Ehgible voters, those enrolled
MN Chippewa Tribe members of
the White Earth, Leech Lake, Bois
Forte, Mille Lacs, Fond du Lac,
and Grand Portage reservations
who will be 18 on or before the
date of the election will be asked
to vote on two proposed amendments. The first would amend
Section 2 to require candidates
running for office to reside on the
reservation of their enrollment
one year before the election. The
second would amend Article IV
by adding a Section 4, which
would prohibit convicted felons
from running for office. The
precise wording of the proposed
amendments as well as detailed
information on how to vote will
be mailed to each eligible voter at
the most current address of record
on file at the offices of the MN
Chippewa Tribe.
Traditional reservation and urban
polhng sites will be utihzed and
will be open from 8:00 a.m. until
7:00 p.m. on the date of the election. Members may also vote by
absentee ballot. In order to ensure
effective mailings.
Tribal members are asked to
update their current address with
the Tribal Operations—Enrollments Office at (218) 335-8581.
Leaders ofthe MCT and Agency
Superintendent want to emphasize
that the Secretarial Election process differs from general tribal
elections and follows its own
procedures. If you hve any questions, please contact the General
Election Board at (218) 335-8581
or write to them at General Election Board, P.O. Box 517, Cass
Lake, MN 56633.
UND president says he forgot to mention nickname issue
By Dave Kolpack
Associated Press
GRAND FORKS, N.D. - University of North Dakota president
Charles Kupchella is proposing
new research centers and a new
research foundation, saying they
would contribute millions of dollars to the state's economy.
"We are well within the top
100 doctoral research universities in the United States, by every
measure," Kupchella said Tuesday
in his "state of the university"
speech.
Kupchella told about 200 people
that UND is making progress in
improving programs and increasing faculty salaries. He failed to
mention the school's dispute with
the NCAA over the Fighting Sioux
nickname, even though it took up
about half a page in his written
13-page speech.
Asked about it afterward, Kupchella said he was not trying to
avoid the nickname issue.
"Would you believe I just forgot
about it?" he said.
"I was extremely surprised that
it didn't come up," said Charles
Moore, a fourth-year communications student from Bismarck.
"The two biggest issues with
students right now are probably
tuition and the nickname controversy."
Kupchella's speech proposed up
to five new research centers, at a
cost of about $10 million, and a
new research foundation.
"We all have to be involved in
research development," Kupchella
said. "We're deep into that."
However, he said the school
would not sacrifice student programs for research and facilities.
The school also has plans to
add programs in the evenings,
weekends and summer months,
and to develop American Indians
programs, he said.
Kupchella told students in the
audience that tuition increases
may not be as large as the last
couple of years.
"If we don't have to raise it,
we won't, but if we have to, we
will," Kupchella said, responding
to a question from Moore.
"I think everyone is worried
about keeping tuition increases to
a minimum," said Bobby Haskins,
the UND student body president.
"I thought he did a good job of explaining that and other important
issues."
Haskins said vxit wouldn't
have been appropriate" to turn
the address into a debate on the
UND to page 3
Grand Forks City Council encourages more casino talk
Associated Press
GRAND FORKS, N.D. - City
Council members have passed a
resolution encouraging the Turtle
Mountain Band of Chippewa to
continue efforts to get a casino
built here.
Monday's 5-2 vote came despite
pleas from opponents who said the
casino would be morally wrong.
The resolution says the council
encourages the tribe to continue
trying to get state and federal approval for the casino. It says the
council will later determine if
there are economic benefits.
"I don't know if we need a lot
more information," Council member Eliot Glassheim said. "It is not
a direction the city of Grand Forks
needs to go."
He and council member Dorette
Kerian opposed the resolution.
Bill Johnson, the tribe's casino
consultant, said the resolution will
help move the project along.
"It shows there's interest," he
said. "It allows the federal people
to believe this is a real project, not
a 'reservation shopping' deal."
The resolution indicated council members still have questions
about how much land would become sovereign tribal territory and
how much the tribe would pay the
city, since sovereign territory may
not be taxed.
"I think this is a bad idea
whether we're offered $100,000
or $500,000 as a city," Glassheim
said. "This is money masquerading as economic development."
Marianne Allen, a teacher opposing the casino, said she was
there to speak for the children.
"It's not your job to make
money," she told council members. "It's your job to protect
children."
Council President Hal Gersh-
man said some believe crime
goes up at casinos only because
they bring many people together,
and that they provide more jobs to
reduce poverty rates.
Council member Doug Chris-
tensen, who drafted the resolution,
said he would support the idea of
putting the casino issue to a community vote. Monday night's vote,
he said, is just showing the tribe
"the courtesy of listening."
VOICE OF THE PEOPLE
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A weekly publication. Copyright, Native American Press, 2005
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Volume 18 Issue 18
October 21, 2005
NIEA President Dr. David Beaulieu (L) hands Dr. Will Antell (R) the Lifetime Achievement Award
following remarks that characterized Antell as an "early visionary." Both are White Earth Chippewa Indians. Photo: Rick St. Germaine
Will Antell Receives Life Achievement Award in
Indian Education: NIEA Recognizes its Founder
By Rick St. Germaine
Denver, CO - Standing
in the glow of bright lights
cast down from the immense
convention assembly hall, Dr.
Will Antell, Minnesota White
Earth Chippewa, was handed
the Life Achievement Award
from the National Indian
Education Association at its
36th convention in Denver,
Colorado.
Showered with accolades
that spanned forty plus years
of educational leadership at
a crucial time that pre-dated
the policy formation period of
Indian self-determination and
Indian control of schools, Antell thanked the organization
and recognized many others
who as a team launched NIEA
and federal legislation to support Indian education.
"There was Bill Demmert,
Rosemary (Christensen),
Dillon Platero, Ace Sahmaut,
John Winchester, and many
others who should also be
recognized," he stated, as
he firmly held onto the shiny
crystal award.
"The original seventeen
board members (of NIEA) became a voice in every level of
government and service - in
education, tribal, university,
state, and federal," said Antell.
"I would like to acknowledge
my wife, Mary Lou, who was
the first secretary of NIEA back
in 1969, in the basement of our
home in Stillwater, Minnesota,"
he added, as she stood up and
nodded to the applause.
"She made the phone calls,
prepared the agendas, readied the
mailings, made travel arrangements, and sent out the notices,"
he explained, as he looked back
at the humble beginnings of the
movement.
Antell, introduced by his
friend and current NIEA president. Dr. David Beaulieu, was
a teacher, coach, administrator,
university professor, Minnesota
state associate superintendent of
education, and one of the fram-
ers of the Indian Education Act
of 1972.
In the late 1960s, Antell and
the other founders asked for
time on the conference agendas
of the major American Indian
AWARD to page 3
Thousands of Native Children Being
Left Behind: NIEA Convention Opens
By Rick St. Germaine
Denver, CO - Responding to a
growing dissatisfaction from Indian educators who are complaining about damaging impediments
from the No Child Left Behind
legislation, the National Indian
Education Association on October
6th launched a critical broadside at
the federal education program with
charges that it is actually causing
more American Indian students
to give up and drop out than it is
helping.
"This is not a small and trivial
matter," declared Dr. David Beau
lieu, NIEA president, in his
opening charge to the 2,000 delegates assembled at the Denver
Convention Center, "NCLB is
so focused on punishing school
failure rather than rewarding the
many successes that our schools
have achieved."
In a rousing speech, interrupted at times with applause,
Beaulieu cited the components
of the federal program that are
causing the most problems.
"The Indian voice is heard
NIEA to page 3
Program aims at keeping American Indian
language alive
Associated Press
MINNEAPOLIS -Asachild,
Emma Fairbanks was sent to an
Indian boarding school, where
she was hit with a ruler if she
spoke Ojibwe.
But seven decades later, her
daughter, Cleone Thompson,
runs a child care center where
young children are enrolled in
an American-Indian language
immersion program.
"I never thought it would
come back," Fairbanks, 79,
said. "I was worried they (future generations) would forget
their Indian ways."
Thompson said that in about
10 years, most of the elders on
the reservations will be gone
and there won't be anyone left
who speaks the language. Her
child care center in her Minneapolis home, Nokomis Child
Care, is part of the first Indian
language immersion program
in the nation for urban preschoolers to revitalize native
languages.
About 55,000 American Indians are enrolled in tribes in
Minnesota. Roughly 3,000 are
fully fluent Ojibwe speakers
and about 30 are fully fluent in
Dakota, according to estimates by
the Grotto Foundation, which has
focused much of its philanthropy
on language revitalization.
Many American Indians can
say certain words and phrases,
but few can carry on a conversation, community leaders say.
It is part of the legacy of the
boarding schools that American
Indians were forced to go to for
decades.
"My parents didn't want me to
speak Dakota; they were afraid
for us," said Jennifer Bendickson,
program director at the Alliance
of Early Childhood Professionals,
which was awarded the federal
grant to launch the preschools
this month. "They would talk to
each other in Dakota, but when
we came in, they'd stop."
Universities and tribal schools
have offered language and culture
classes over the years. But now,
people are finding new ways
to keep native languages alive.
There is an Ojibwe immersion
preschool in Leech Lake, and Indigenous Language Symposiums
are held annually. In the Upper
Sioux community, a specialized
class teaches Dakota to entire
households, rather than individu
als. At University of Minnesota,
language students drive up to
Canada on weekends in the fall
for an immersion experience at
wild rice harvests.
Research shows that immersion programs _ from preschool
to high school _ have the best results, said Margaret Boyer, executive director of the Alliance for
Early Childhood Professionals.
"If you want to learn Spanish,
you can go to South America,"
Boyer said. "If you want to learn
French, you go to France. But
there's nowhere in the U.S. you
can go and hear only Ojibwe or
Dakota. So the best way to learn
is immersion _ and starting at a
young age."
At All Nations Child Care Center, the students practice counting
numbers and saying animal names
and colors in Dakota. They also
are surrounded with drawings of
symbols in American Indian culture, such as eagles and wolves.
Similar immersion programs
will be launched at Four Directions Child Development Center,
Cherish the Children Learning
Center and Nokomis Child Care.
PROGRAM to page 5